Remember: My Bloody Valentine

My Bloody Valentine are an influental dream pop/shoegaze-band from Dublin, Ireland. Former members were guitarist and vocalist Kevin Shield and the drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig. They played together since their childhood in the seventies in several other bands. My Bloody Valentine existed from 1983 to 1997 and now they’re active again since 2007. They took their name of a 1981 horror movie with the same name and name influences such as Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground and Cocteau Twins.

They have released two groundbreaking records, Isn’t Anything in 1988 and especially Loveless in 1991 who is often described as originator of modern shoegaze. Loveless was recorder from 1989 to 1991 in nineteen different studios and several artists name this album as an influence for their music.

It is said, that the production costs for Loveless range up to 500’000 $ and nearly bankrupted Creation Records, their label at that time. Shields said, that they worked longer on the lyrics than on the music but they are often difficult to understand because they recorder in the night and so Bilinda Butcher sounded sleepy. They signed to Warner Bros. to publish their music in the United States. Then finally in the late 1991 the record appeared on the market, wasn’t a great success in the UK though it ranged #24 in the charts. But music magazines like Rolling Stones or Pitchfork name Loveless as one of the best if not the best record of the 90s. They supported Dinosaur Jr. on their tour in the USA but the incomes for Loveless were too less to cope the debts of Creation and so they were dropped.

After the release 1991 they got signed by Island Records and went into studios again to record and later release their third record. But after they dispenced about 500’000 $ without any results they got kicked out by Island. After that distanced more and more from each other and so they broke up in 1992.

Isn’t Anything” was good enough to inspire an entire scene of My Bloody Valentine soundalikes, but “Loveless”‘ greatness proved that the band was inimitable (Heather Phares)